Fan Fiction ❯ Opposites Attract ❯ One ( Chapter 1 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Elsewhere 
It all started with a lost tube of lube... Norris/Glenn pairing
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Hentai / Romance | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 03.26.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.7K | Visits: 565 | Status: Completed
It all started with a lost tube of lube... Norris/Glenn pairing
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Hentai / Romance | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 03.26.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.7K | Visits: 565 | Status: Completed
Fandom: Chrono Cross
Date Finished: August 22nd, 2004
Classification: Romance, Humor
Pairing: Norris/Glenn
Rating: NC-17
Note: First successful SmutJar!Fic.*
Opposites Attract
By Elsewhere
elsewherecw@shaw.ca
Disclaimer: The characters and story of Chrono Cross are not mine. Oops. ;P
Distribution: If you want this story for any page other than the ones I've sent it to, please ask me first, so I know where it goes.
Spoilers: None in particular, although if you haven't played Chrono Cross, and particularly the second disc, I sincerely doubt you'll understand some of the character and event references. ^_^
*Note: I've always been the type to say, "I want to write these types of fics, and these pairings...but I don't feel like it right now." On August 15th, 2004, I took a cue from my friend Miss Kalloway and decided to undertake a writing exercise to discipline myself to write the pairings and situations I want to write on demand instead of just whenever motivation happens to strike, which isn't that often anymore. So, I created myself some smut jars (or plastic buckets, in this case). Into one jar goes dozens of little folded papers with various pairings written on them. Into another goes folded papers with challenges of every type collected from every challenge page I could raid (much thanks to Challenge_The_Muses and AdoptAPlotBunny). The idea is, once a day I sit down, draw one pairing and one challenge, and I am *required* to write something, even if it's just a brief scene, using those cues. So began my exercise in disciplining myself...and this is the first fic that was born from that enterprise...
Smut!Jar Drawing -
Pairing: Norris/Glenn
Challenge: Begin the story with the line, "It all started with a lost tube of lube..."
Summary: It all started with a lost tube of lube...
*****
It all started with a lost tube of lube...
Or...perhaps I should begin before that. It actually started much earlier in the evening, with a rather startling confession from one of our traveling companions while we were all gathered around the fire, eating dinner and chattering idly as we usually did at that time of night.
"I-may-be-unable-to-continue-on-the-journey," Grobyc had stated in his usual mechanical tone of voice. Well, he was a cyborg after all.
"Why's that, Grobyc?" Kid had asked, speaking up for the rest of the group, all surprised by Grobyc's announcement, although it was true that people tended to wander in and out of our rather large group every day. Sometimes it seemed that most of the El Nido triangle's population had joined in Serge's noble quest.
"I-am-experiencing-a-critical-shortage-of-lubrication," Grobyc had said simply before going back to ingesting some of the nutritional supplements Luccia had provided for him in place of normal human food.
There was a brief but poignant silence before Orlha finally spoke up.
"What sort of lubrication do you need, Grobyc?"
"Without-lubrication, I-cannot-move," Grobyc had explained, indicating his metallic limbs, and Luccia had cleared her throat.
"I believe dat vot he is saying is dat he requires oil for da simple purpose of maintenance," she had said crisply, and everyone had made sounds of understanding and nodded.
"Well, can't we buy some?" Van had asked, scratching his head.
"It-is-too-out-of-the-way-on-our-journey," Grobyc had said, shaking his head. "Therefore-I-will-leave-on-my-own."
"But that doesn't seem fair..." Orlha had said, folding her arms and crossing her legs as she adopted a thoughtful look.
"What kind of oil do you need, Grobyc? I mean, does it have to be machine oil, or can it be something else?" I had asked then, sensibly, I thought.
"Anything that keeps his joints well lubricated until he can get some proper oil should do for de time being," Luccia had commented.
"So how does that help us?" Kid had asked, glancing towards Serge, who had lifted his shoulders and shrugged, shaking his head to show he had no answers. "We don't keep cooking oil or nothing...any other ideas, guys?"
Everyone shook their heads in turn, and I sighed.
"For the time being, I suppose the best we can do is search the surrounding area for substances that we might be able to use in a pinch."
"Meanwhile, let's try to think of anything we might have on us to use," Miki had said, finally offering her opinion.
Nods all around, and then we'd all gone off on our separate ways to search the woods around us.
I was on my knees crawling beneath a huge bush, checking out the fungus and insect life beneath it---you never know, I told myself---when I felt a light touch against my back. I jumped, but forced myself to relax when I turned my head and saw Norris crouched next to me, smiling that usual casual smile.
"Hey," he said, voice soft, as though he didn't want anyone but me to hear him. Not that there was anyone else around anyway.
I acknowledged him with a nod and went back to my search, and after a moment I felt him crawl under the bush next to me, his hands searching in the dirt near mine.
"Do you really think we can find something like this?" he asked, sounding torn between disbelief and amusement.
"I don't know," I said, my tone verging on annoyance as usual when I was around him. I had never quite gotten used to being around a Porre soldier so often, and besides, there was something about him that just...bothered me. Perhaps it was that he seemed so nice, honest, and upright, for one thing, which didn't fit my image of 'Porre soldier' at all. Maybe it was because he seemed a little bit clingy, or at least in-my-face, always trying to be friendly and talking to me. True, he really acted like that with everyone, but it was bothersome.
He didn't speak after that, for which I was grateful, and after we had scrabbled around in the dirt some more with no luck---truthfully I hadn't had much hope---we got to our feet, dusted ourselves off, and walked towards the beach. Through the trees we could just barely see the white sand and the two-toned blue of the sea and the night sky blending into one another.
My boots sank into the sand slightly, and I glanced over to watch as he let out a quiet sigh of satisfaction the moment he walked out of the forest onto the beach. This was his element; he was affiliated with earth and energy. I had been more comfortable in the forest we had just been in; my element was that of the trees and wind. Of course he would make me uneasy, I thought to myself: we were opposites in every way, destined to be repelled by one another. Even the elements which sang through every aspect of our beings, shaping our interactions with the environment around us, were polar opposites.
He stood for a moment watching the water rolling up against the sand before he turned to glance at me, and the seriousness in his melancholy blue eyes made me think that perhaps he had been pondering the same thing I had been.
But then he opened his mouth, and he spoke...and my contemplative mood was shattered.
"Glenn...the truth is, I have some lube, but I didn't want to mention it, especially since...I dropped it earlier today. I don't know where it is and I was embarrassed enough about the idea of anyone finding it, but now..."
He trailed off, slowly, his expression becoming one which I might have laughed at if I hadn't been so incapable of normal emotion at that moment. It was an expression that said, 'Oh...perhaps I shouldn't have just said that after all...'
I suppose my face was rather priceless as well, which must have caused his reaction.
"I'm sorry...you have some what?"
He flushed a bit, a boyish little blush that showed his age better than almost anything else I'd ever seen him do.
"Lube. Sexual lubricant," he said, quickly and simply, as though he wanted to get it over with. He held up a hand, palm out, as though to say he couldn't help it; help himself. "I had some, and who knows; it might help Grobyc. But like I said, I lost it."
"I...see," I said slowly, and then I turned around, my back to him, so that he wouldn't see the grimace that crossed my face as I tried not to break out laughing. "Why did you confess this to me?"
"I'm...not confessing anything!" he exclaimed, and I was fairly sure that if I turned again, his face would be even redder than before. "I'm just saying that...maybe we should try to find it."
"And you wanted help finding it, but didn't want to tell anyone else?"
"Something like that, yes," he said, voice quieting.
"Why me?" I said, turning back to him, my face back to its usual stony stare.
"Because...I thought you might understand," he said, shifting a bit uncomfortably, and I couldn't help but twitch a bit at that.
"I'm not like you, Norris," I said, turning on my heel and starting back towards the woods. "Now, where did you drop it?"
"Um...somewhere in these woods," he said, quickening his steps to catch up with me before he lost me in the trees. I felt relieved almost as soon as I was within the foliage, on familiar turf---my area, not his.
"What were you doing at the time?" I asked, without thinking---no, really.
He was silent for a moment and then he coughed quietly.
"I was, um...making use of it," he said as delicately as he could under the circumstances, I suppose, and for some stupid reason I chose that particular moment to trip on a root sticking up out of the ground. He caught my arm, keeping me from falling flat on my face.
"Thank you," I muttered, choosing not to comment on his previous statement. I'd probably already said enough through body language alone.
"Yeah. Well, anyway, when I got back to the tent I didn't have it, and I went back to look around for it but I had no luck," Norris said, by then sounding so completely uncomfortable about the whole thing that I was actually feeling a bit sorry for him.
"Can you remember where you were when you lost it?" I said, rolling my eyes to myself.
"Yes, actually...over there," he said, pointing to the right, so I changed directions and we headed that way.
We ended up in a sort of bower, under the shade of a number of trees that had grown together very densely, the leaves forming a loose canopy over a bare patch of ground. Once I ducked inside, I immediately tried not to feel uncomfortable, for some reason thinking about what Norris had been doing here earlier that very day. Instead, I moved around, noting that if his lost item wasn't on the bare ground, then he must have dropped it somewhere in the surrounding undergrowth.
I got to my hands and knees and started hunting around close to the biggest tree trunk, the one the other trees all grew around, automatically assuming that in a situation such as the one Norris had implied, he might have used the tree as a convenient backrest.
"I honestly searched this entire area thoroughly," he remarked, getting to his knees next to me. "I don't know what could have happened to it."
"Things are easily lost in the woods," I said, and then I blinked as a sudden thought occurred to me. The thought made me exceptionally uncomfortable, for some reason, but I didn't think about that. "Were you with anyone at the time?"
"With anyone...? Oh...no," he said, blushing slightly again before he started rummaging in the bushes to the right of me.
I shrugged a shoulder. Nobody else was likely to have taken it then, unless somebody else in the group was hiding the fact that they had found a tube of lube and stolen it away. I didn't think it likely that any wild animals or creatures would especially like sexual lubricant.
Time passed; I didn't pay attention to how long. It took some time before I noticed that I'd crawled quite a ways into the bushes from the little bower, so with a few muttered words of self-directed irritation I started back to where I'd began.
By the time I got back to the little bower, my ribbons were in rather sorry shape and I was filthy, covered in mud and leaves, which normally I wouldn't mind too much, but there was no good place to bathe around here. I was feeling in an even worse mood than before, my usual sour expression worsened to a frown. Furthermore, there was no sign of my Porre companion.
"Norris? Norris, where are you?" I called in a moderately loud tone of voice, turning my head back and forth as I looked around for any sign of bright blond hair.
"I'm over here!" I heard his voice call in return from somewhere off to my left. "Um...I'm actually kind of...stuck."
That set my eyebrow to twitching, but I tried not to make any comment until I at least saw what he meant. Following the sound of his voice, I crawled around the big tree trunk to the other side of the bower until I caught sight of him, and the moment I did, a low growl came to my throat.
He had somehow managed to get himself entangled in some of the vines that grew on the trees in this area. These vines were infamous for their life-like behavior, and Norris was currently experiencing it first hand. They were wrapped tightly around his legs all the way up to his waist, and had hoisted him up into the low canopy like a trap, so that he was now hanging upside down helplessly.
"I thought you might never come back to rescue me," Norris said sheepishly with a chuckle, only to stop quickly when he saw the nonplused expression on my face.
"Dare I ask...?" I began, and when he merely shrugged, I sighed and crawled closer to him, careful to avoid the vines myself. Of course, they would be kinder to me in the first place; I was of their ilk, in a way.
"All right...just...hold still," I commanded him before I considered the situation carefully. If I used any of my magic spells, I'd be sure to hit him as well as the vines---and well, hitting him seemed somehow more satisfying than hitting the vines in the first place, so that possibility was out. I didn't have a small knife or anything of the sort...even the two Einlanzers were back at the campsite, and even then, while I was of course famous for my skill with the sword, could I really use a broadsword to do such careful work?
"Any ideas?" Norris asked after several long minutes had passed and I was still just sitting there, chin in my hand as I ran the different possibilities through my head.
"I'm working on it," I snapped, after which he was silent.
But finally...I had to give in.
"All right...I admit it...I don't know what to do," I said, a frown giving away my frustration. "Should I get help?"
"No, that's all right," he said with a wry smile. "I'm embarrassed enough as it is, thanks."
I sighed, leveling a glare at him that firmly asked the question, 'Then WHAT do you suggest we do?'
"I have an idea, actually," he said, lifting his eyebrows.
I lifted mine in return.
"Take off my pants," he said quite seriously, meeting my eyes.
I stared at him for a moment in silence before I turned away.
"I'm going to get help," I said dryly, and he laughed.
"No, seriously...the vines have got a hold of me by my pants. If you take off my shoes and my pants, I might be able to slide out of the grip of the vines, and then retrieve my clothes..."
The problem, you see, was that...he made an awful lot of sense. And considering that I actually did feel just enough sympathy for him that I did want to save him as much embarrassment as I could, after thinking about it briefly, I decided that there was no other choice and that I had to help him in any way that I could.
With a sigh, I approached him, hands up.
"All right," I said, meeting his eyes briefly before raising them to his belt. "Stay completely still, okay?"
He nodded before going utterly still, which was good, because the vines didn't seem to like the way he had started moving around since I'd arrived. They'd begun tightening, and that was the last thing we wanted. My touch seemed to calm them slightly, but only slightly.
My fingers trembled a bit, causing me to fumble a couple of times, as I undid his ridiculous belt. I put this down to simple practicalities---I had never undone another man's belt before, and the angle was extremely awkward. I finally got the damn thing unwound and let it drop to the ground, cringing as the vines twitched in response. Obviously I wasn't as nervous as Norris, who winced as the vines moved dangerously close to some of his rather important body parts---parts which, incidentally, I was trying very hard to avoid.
I did the shoes next, finding them just as difficult as the belt, and feeling a major sense of relief when they finally dropped to the ground. Another wince as the vines staked a greater claim, starting further towards Norris' stomach. I intended to beat them to it.
I undid his fly slowly, trying not to entice my opponent into any sort of action at all, and then went for the final act. My fingers slid beneath the waistband of his trousers as silently as they could, and with the gentlest tug, I started to move them upwards, fighting with the vines.
Of course, it's amazing how when you're in these situations, you don't think about simple things like physics. Neither of us had considered the consequences of our actions, and when it was too late...well, it was too late.
As soon as I had his pants past his hips, and the vines along with them, the vines' grip on him became loose enough that he started to slide, and then in one great tumble he spilled down out of the sky and onto the ground. I suppose it was what we had intended, but the unfortunate thing was that *I* was on the ground, and I took the brunt of his fall.
"Glenn! Are you all right?" he asked, poised above me, his body awkwardly laid on top of mine.
"Yes...fine," I said a bit breathlessly, bringing up a hand to touch my chest, as though checking for broken ribs. "I suppose I should have seen that coming."
"I'm sorry I didn't think of it," Norris said, again in that sheepish tone of voice, his bright blue eyes shimmering with mild amusement. His face was very close to mine. Why was he still on top of me again?
I dropped my hand back down and jumped a bit when it brushed against his bare thigh.
"Um...are you all right? Are you injured?" I asked, as a delicate way to start to bring up the subject (of why he was still on top of me).
"I think I'm okay," he said, and he must have taken the hint, because he started to roll off of me, but something about the way he rolled caused him to press against my thigh in a particular way. I realized something with a sudden burst of clarity that caused me to reach up and grab his shoulder, curling his shirt in my fist as I glared up at him firmly.
"Hey," I said, as firmly as I felt capable of in that moment, when security had dropped out from under me between one breath and the next. "You...that turned you on, didn't it? All of that just now. Why?"
I honestly can't say why I asked him that, so boldly. Perhaps I just wanted to know. All I know is that it was worth it, if only for the way his eyes widened like saucers.
"Wha...how do you know that?" he asked, and then a strange expression, something almost like pain, making his forehead furrow and his eyes go hazy for a moment, passed over his face as I briefly rubbed my leg between his. "Oh...that's how you know."
"Yes. An indicator that doesn't lie," I said breathlessly. "Is this a new thing?"
He glanced down at me from where he was holding himself above me, his hands on either side of my head, and then he sighed and closed his eyes.
"No, Glenn...it's not a new thing," he said with a slight smile. "If I'm honest...I've wanted you ever since I first saw you."
Well...that was certainly honest.
"Is that why you're always hanging off of me?" I asked, looking back on all those situations in a new light.
"I don't mean to," he said sheepishly. "I just like being near you. I'm sorry, Glenn."
"I don't mind that much," I said, and then I slapped myself inwardly. What was I talking about!? Remember the annoyance, the irritation...the way being near him always bothered me, how something about him always made me uneasy, like...like I had a mild stomach bug or something.
Almost like when you first feel attracted to someone.
Well, didn't I feel rather stupid.
"You know...this conversation is boring me," I said, mainly because I was tired of thinking and wanted to do something that would ensure that I wouldn't think for a while. And then I leaned up and kissed him, ignoring everything, like the fact that he was Porre and I was Acacia, and he was yellow and I was green, and I had never kissed anyone, much less another boy.
At first he stiffened, obviously surprised, but then he relaxed into it and started to kiss me back---or rather, to take control of the kiss, seemingly noticing my clumsiness and inexperience. The next thing I knew, his entire body was pressed against mine, his arms tightly around me, and he was kissing me so deeply, so thoroughly, that I felt almost like he was trying to get inside me through my mouth. Tongues stroking tongues, teeth nipping, lips caressing...I had never felt anything so hot in my entire life. And I could certainly say that Norris had never bothered me so much on any other occasion. One kiss and I was ready to explode, probably the most painful erection I had ever experienced straining against my pants as I rubbed myself against him, seeking some kind of relief---something *fast*.
He broke off the kiss and panted into my ear, and for my part, all I could do was let my head smack back against the ground and let out a quiet, raspy, "Oh...gods..."
And it was then, as I lay there, head against the dirt, staring up into the trees, that I spotted it. The lube, I mean...Norris' lost lube. At first all I saw was an elusive little sparkle of silver, but when I blinked to clear my vision it solidified into a little silver tube, stuck on one of the branches up in the trees.
I blinked again and ran a hand idly through Norris' hair, taking note of the fact that he was trying, with only minimal success, to get into my armor while he alternately nipped and sucked at my neck.
"Do you make it a habit to throw your lubricant into the trees?" I asked, and he glanced up, looking surprised by the question.
"Possibly...I make it a habit to get lost in the moment," he said after a pause, and then he followed my gaze as I looked up at the little tube shining in the sunlight.
"I found it," I said, unnecessarily.
"Thank the gods," Norris remarked, nuzzling his face against my leathers briefly before he got to his feet and reached up into the trees, russling the branches to try to get them to drop the elusive prize. "We're going to need it pretty soon..."
I had to take a deep breath and close my eyes when he said that, a rush of nervousness and a kind of finality of a decision already made moving through me. Then I opened my eyes and sat up, quickly stripping myself of my upper armor. When he knelt in front of me he took off his own jacket and shirt and then shimmied out of his underwear, and then I had to stop what I was doing and stare for a few moments. I wasn't sure what I was doing---admiring, acclimatizing, whatever---but I had to look at his body, tall and strong and *naked*. So very naked. I had seen other men naked before---I was in the army, after all---but never like this. Never so...aroused. He was larger than I had expected, too. There was that twinge of nervousness again, but I clamped that down.
He smiled at me encouragingly and leaned forward, lending his hands to the cause, helping to get rid of the rest of my clothing until I was just in my skivvies. Now it was my turn to blush boyishly as I took them off and sat cross-legged, not really trying to hide anything, but not trying to show off either, just awaiting his opinion.
I let out a short sound of shock when he suddenly grabbed me, his arms moving around me in a kind of embrace, and gently wrestled me to the ground. It seemed that he was the type to show his reactions through action, I thought, as he started to...well, to devour me, really. His mouth started at mine, giving me another searing kiss before he made his way down my body, licking and sucking his way along my chest and stomach and nuzzling his soft hair against my skin until he reached my arousal.
I nearly lost it when he first took the tip of my penis into his mouth, wrapping his lips around it like it was some kind of delicacy. I was clutching my hair, clutching his hair, trying to let out the frustration that was building up inside me somehow, my head thrashing back and forth as he sucked down the first few drops of precum.
"Please, Norris...hurry," I hissed. I really didn't care for this to be a long, drawn-out experience of exploration. That could come later. All I wanted right now was to come, and for some inexplicable reason, I wanted to do it with him. I didn't want to succumb to this nervousness; I wanted to succumb to the frustration, to the friction, and to this strange sensation of actually wanting to be in another person's arms.
He nodded, drawing back and licking his lips before he reached for the tube of lube he'd retrieved from the trees and poured a liberal amount onto his fingers. He bent over me, looking into my eyes as he pressed his fingers to my opening. I winced, then cried out, my hands gripping his shoulders hard, as his fingers pressed into me. He nuzzled against my temple and kissed me as he gently pumped his fingers in and out, spreading the lube around and stretching me, getting me ready. I was gasping by then, fighting for breath through the fire that was moving through my body. It took a while before that fire stopped being red-hot pain and started to feel like something else, and the need started to come back. By the time I started to move back against his fingers, craving the sensation of my body clenching around him, I knew it was time.
"Norris..." I growled, unwilling to wait any longer, and he nodded, getting to his knees. I watched, breathing hard, as he lubed himself up and then moved to kneel between my legs. His hands were methodical---he'd obviously done this before, which was kind of a relief, actually---but very gentle as he hoisted my legs over his shoulders, getting me into a better position, and then placed himself at my entrance.
I couldn't help the rough sound that was dragged out of my throat as he pushed into me, my muscles clenching hard around him with every thrust of his body against mine. The expression on his face was almost enough to drive me over the edge, much less the sensations shooting up my spine; he looked like he was focusing really hard, his eyes brilliant blue as though incensed and his face coated with sweat. My hands were in his hair before I knew it and I was pulling him against me for a desperate kiss as we kept grinding helplessly against each other, knowing that neither of us had very far to go.
I came first, letting go of his mouth and expressing my feelings with a strangled groan that became a cry as my orgasm spiraled into something that seemed like so much more. Within seconds he followed me, crying out something incomprehensible against my shoulder before he thrust a few final times and then fell still, his breath coming hard and fast where his chest pressed to mine.
"...Whoa," he said after a moment, and I couldn't help but agree. I closed my eyes and reached up to embrace him lightly, and after a moment he lowered himself a bit, closing his arms around me, and we just held each other in silence for a few minutes. Neither of us spoke up to ask what would happen next, or anything like that. That could come later too.
We did, however, eventually get up, and get back to the business of a normal day. Which meant first getting Norris' pants back from the mad vines, which proved quite difficult for two people who wanted nothing more than to roll over for a post-coitus nap. It was evening before we returned to the campsite, and even though we both noticed the strange looks people were throwing our way, we ignored them.
Norris approached Grobyc privately.
"Here you go, Grobyc," he said, handing him the tube of lube. "Use as much as you like."
Grobyc stared at the tube for a moment before handing it back to Norris.
"Thanks-but-no-thanks, Commander. The-Luccia-found-me-material-to-use-already...and-you-probably-will-need-th is-more-than-I."
The giggling from the people sitting in the circle around us was pretty obvious, and while Norris blushed lightly and scratched his head, glancing to me as though asking what to do, I merely sighed and shrugged.
No use hiding it, I suppose.
*****
THE END
Date Finished: August 22nd, 2004
Classification: Romance, Humor
Pairing: Norris/Glenn
Rating: NC-17
Note: First successful SmutJar!Fic.*
Opposites Attract
By Elsewhere
elsewherecw@shaw.ca
Disclaimer: The characters and story of Chrono Cross are not mine. Oops. ;P
Distribution: If you want this story for any page other than the ones I've sent it to, please ask me first, so I know where it goes.
Spoilers: None in particular, although if you haven't played Chrono Cross, and particularly the second disc, I sincerely doubt you'll understand some of the character and event references. ^_^
*Note: I've always been the type to say, "I want to write these types of fics, and these pairings...but I don't feel like it right now." On August 15th, 2004, I took a cue from my friend Miss Kalloway and decided to undertake a writing exercise to discipline myself to write the pairings and situations I want to write on demand instead of just whenever motivation happens to strike, which isn't that often anymore. So, I created myself some smut jars (or plastic buckets, in this case). Into one jar goes dozens of little folded papers with various pairings written on them. Into another goes folded papers with challenges of every type collected from every challenge page I could raid (much thanks to Challenge_The_Muses and AdoptAPlotBunny). The idea is, once a day I sit down, draw one pairing and one challenge, and I am *required* to write something, even if it's just a brief scene, using those cues. So began my exercise in disciplining myself...and this is the first fic that was born from that enterprise...
Smut!Jar Drawing -
Pairing: Norris/Glenn
Challenge: Begin the story with the line, "It all started with a lost tube of lube..."
Summary: It all started with a lost tube of lube...
*****
It all started with a lost tube of lube...
Or...perhaps I should begin before that. It actually started much earlier in the evening, with a rather startling confession from one of our traveling companions while we were all gathered around the fire, eating dinner and chattering idly as we usually did at that time of night.
"I-may-be-unable-to-continue-on-the-journey," Grobyc had stated in his usual mechanical tone of voice. Well, he was a cyborg after all.
"Why's that, Grobyc?" Kid had asked, speaking up for the rest of the group, all surprised by Grobyc's announcement, although it was true that people tended to wander in and out of our rather large group every day. Sometimes it seemed that most of the El Nido triangle's population had joined in Serge's noble quest.
"I-am-experiencing-a-critical-shortage-of-lubrication," Grobyc had said simply before going back to ingesting some of the nutritional supplements Luccia had provided for him in place of normal human food.
There was a brief but poignant silence before Orlha finally spoke up.
"What sort of lubrication do you need, Grobyc?"
"Without-lubrication, I-cannot-move," Grobyc had explained, indicating his metallic limbs, and Luccia had cleared her throat.
"I believe dat vot he is saying is dat he requires oil for da simple purpose of maintenance," she had said crisply, and everyone had made sounds of understanding and nodded.
"Well, can't we buy some?" Van had asked, scratching his head.
"It-is-too-out-of-the-way-on-our-journey," Grobyc had said, shaking his head. "Therefore-I-will-leave-on-my-own."
"But that doesn't seem fair..." Orlha had said, folding her arms and crossing her legs as she adopted a thoughtful look.
"What kind of oil do you need, Grobyc? I mean, does it have to be machine oil, or can it be something else?" I had asked then, sensibly, I thought.
"Anything that keeps his joints well lubricated until he can get some proper oil should do for de time being," Luccia had commented.
"So how does that help us?" Kid had asked, glancing towards Serge, who had lifted his shoulders and shrugged, shaking his head to show he had no answers. "We don't keep cooking oil or nothing...any other ideas, guys?"
Everyone shook their heads in turn, and I sighed.
"For the time being, I suppose the best we can do is search the surrounding area for substances that we might be able to use in a pinch."
"Meanwhile, let's try to think of anything we might have on us to use," Miki had said, finally offering her opinion.
Nods all around, and then we'd all gone off on our separate ways to search the woods around us.
I was on my knees crawling beneath a huge bush, checking out the fungus and insect life beneath it---you never know, I told myself---when I felt a light touch against my back. I jumped, but forced myself to relax when I turned my head and saw Norris crouched next to me, smiling that usual casual smile.
"Hey," he said, voice soft, as though he didn't want anyone but me to hear him. Not that there was anyone else around anyway.
I acknowledged him with a nod and went back to my search, and after a moment I felt him crawl under the bush next to me, his hands searching in the dirt near mine.
"Do you really think we can find something like this?" he asked, sounding torn between disbelief and amusement.
"I don't know," I said, my tone verging on annoyance as usual when I was around him. I had never quite gotten used to being around a Porre soldier so often, and besides, there was something about him that just...bothered me. Perhaps it was that he seemed so nice, honest, and upright, for one thing, which didn't fit my image of 'Porre soldier' at all. Maybe it was because he seemed a little bit clingy, or at least in-my-face, always trying to be friendly and talking to me. True, he really acted like that with everyone, but it was bothersome.
He didn't speak after that, for which I was grateful, and after we had scrabbled around in the dirt some more with no luck---truthfully I hadn't had much hope---we got to our feet, dusted ourselves off, and walked towards the beach. Through the trees we could just barely see the white sand and the two-toned blue of the sea and the night sky blending into one another.
My boots sank into the sand slightly, and I glanced over to watch as he let out a quiet sigh of satisfaction the moment he walked out of the forest onto the beach. This was his element; he was affiliated with earth and energy. I had been more comfortable in the forest we had just been in; my element was that of the trees and wind. Of course he would make me uneasy, I thought to myself: we were opposites in every way, destined to be repelled by one another. Even the elements which sang through every aspect of our beings, shaping our interactions with the environment around us, were polar opposites.
He stood for a moment watching the water rolling up against the sand before he turned to glance at me, and the seriousness in his melancholy blue eyes made me think that perhaps he had been pondering the same thing I had been.
But then he opened his mouth, and he spoke...and my contemplative mood was shattered.
"Glenn...the truth is, I have some lube, but I didn't want to mention it, especially since...I dropped it earlier today. I don't know where it is and I was embarrassed enough about the idea of anyone finding it, but now..."
He trailed off, slowly, his expression becoming one which I might have laughed at if I hadn't been so incapable of normal emotion at that moment. It was an expression that said, 'Oh...perhaps I shouldn't have just said that after all...'
I suppose my face was rather priceless as well, which must have caused his reaction.
"I'm sorry...you have some what?"
He flushed a bit, a boyish little blush that showed his age better than almost anything else I'd ever seen him do.
"Lube. Sexual lubricant," he said, quickly and simply, as though he wanted to get it over with. He held up a hand, palm out, as though to say he couldn't help it; help himself. "I had some, and who knows; it might help Grobyc. But like I said, I lost it."
"I...see," I said slowly, and then I turned around, my back to him, so that he wouldn't see the grimace that crossed my face as I tried not to break out laughing. "Why did you confess this to me?"
"I'm...not confessing anything!" he exclaimed, and I was fairly sure that if I turned again, his face would be even redder than before. "I'm just saying that...maybe we should try to find it."
"And you wanted help finding it, but didn't want to tell anyone else?"
"Something like that, yes," he said, voice quieting.
"Why me?" I said, turning back to him, my face back to its usual stony stare.
"Because...I thought you might understand," he said, shifting a bit uncomfortably, and I couldn't help but twitch a bit at that.
"I'm not like you, Norris," I said, turning on my heel and starting back towards the woods. "Now, where did you drop it?"
"Um...somewhere in these woods," he said, quickening his steps to catch up with me before he lost me in the trees. I felt relieved almost as soon as I was within the foliage, on familiar turf---my area, not his.
"What were you doing at the time?" I asked, without thinking---no, really.
He was silent for a moment and then he coughed quietly.
"I was, um...making use of it," he said as delicately as he could under the circumstances, I suppose, and for some stupid reason I chose that particular moment to trip on a root sticking up out of the ground. He caught my arm, keeping me from falling flat on my face.
"Thank you," I muttered, choosing not to comment on his previous statement. I'd probably already said enough through body language alone.
"Yeah. Well, anyway, when I got back to the tent I didn't have it, and I went back to look around for it but I had no luck," Norris said, by then sounding so completely uncomfortable about the whole thing that I was actually feeling a bit sorry for him.
"Can you remember where you were when you lost it?" I said, rolling my eyes to myself.
"Yes, actually...over there," he said, pointing to the right, so I changed directions and we headed that way.
We ended up in a sort of bower, under the shade of a number of trees that had grown together very densely, the leaves forming a loose canopy over a bare patch of ground. Once I ducked inside, I immediately tried not to feel uncomfortable, for some reason thinking about what Norris had been doing here earlier that very day. Instead, I moved around, noting that if his lost item wasn't on the bare ground, then he must have dropped it somewhere in the surrounding undergrowth.
I got to my hands and knees and started hunting around close to the biggest tree trunk, the one the other trees all grew around, automatically assuming that in a situation such as the one Norris had implied, he might have used the tree as a convenient backrest.
"I honestly searched this entire area thoroughly," he remarked, getting to his knees next to me. "I don't know what could have happened to it."
"Things are easily lost in the woods," I said, and then I blinked as a sudden thought occurred to me. The thought made me exceptionally uncomfortable, for some reason, but I didn't think about that. "Were you with anyone at the time?"
"With anyone...? Oh...no," he said, blushing slightly again before he started rummaging in the bushes to the right of me.
I shrugged a shoulder. Nobody else was likely to have taken it then, unless somebody else in the group was hiding the fact that they had found a tube of lube and stolen it away. I didn't think it likely that any wild animals or creatures would especially like sexual lubricant.
Time passed; I didn't pay attention to how long. It took some time before I noticed that I'd crawled quite a ways into the bushes from the little bower, so with a few muttered words of self-directed irritation I started back to where I'd began.
By the time I got back to the little bower, my ribbons were in rather sorry shape and I was filthy, covered in mud and leaves, which normally I wouldn't mind too much, but there was no good place to bathe around here. I was feeling in an even worse mood than before, my usual sour expression worsened to a frown. Furthermore, there was no sign of my Porre companion.
"Norris? Norris, where are you?" I called in a moderately loud tone of voice, turning my head back and forth as I looked around for any sign of bright blond hair.
"I'm over here!" I heard his voice call in return from somewhere off to my left. "Um...I'm actually kind of...stuck."
That set my eyebrow to twitching, but I tried not to make any comment until I at least saw what he meant. Following the sound of his voice, I crawled around the big tree trunk to the other side of the bower until I caught sight of him, and the moment I did, a low growl came to my throat.
He had somehow managed to get himself entangled in some of the vines that grew on the trees in this area. These vines were infamous for their life-like behavior, and Norris was currently experiencing it first hand. They were wrapped tightly around his legs all the way up to his waist, and had hoisted him up into the low canopy like a trap, so that he was now hanging upside down helplessly.
"I thought you might never come back to rescue me," Norris said sheepishly with a chuckle, only to stop quickly when he saw the nonplused expression on my face.
"Dare I ask...?" I began, and when he merely shrugged, I sighed and crawled closer to him, careful to avoid the vines myself. Of course, they would be kinder to me in the first place; I was of their ilk, in a way.
"All right...just...hold still," I commanded him before I considered the situation carefully. If I used any of my magic spells, I'd be sure to hit him as well as the vines---and well, hitting him seemed somehow more satisfying than hitting the vines in the first place, so that possibility was out. I didn't have a small knife or anything of the sort...even the two Einlanzers were back at the campsite, and even then, while I was of course famous for my skill with the sword, could I really use a broadsword to do such careful work?
"Any ideas?" Norris asked after several long minutes had passed and I was still just sitting there, chin in my hand as I ran the different possibilities through my head.
"I'm working on it," I snapped, after which he was silent.
But finally...I had to give in.
"All right...I admit it...I don't know what to do," I said, a frown giving away my frustration. "Should I get help?"
"No, that's all right," he said with a wry smile. "I'm embarrassed enough as it is, thanks."
I sighed, leveling a glare at him that firmly asked the question, 'Then WHAT do you suggest we do?'
"I have an idea, actually," he said, lifting his eyebrows.
I lifted mine in return.
"Take off my pants," he said quite seriously, meeting my eyes.
I stared at him for a moment in silence before I turned away.
"I'm going to get help," I said dryly, and he laughed.
"No, seriously...the vines have got a hold of me by my pants. If you take off my shoes and my pants, I might be able to slide out of the grip of the vines, and then retrieve my clothes..."
The problem, you see, was that...he made an awful lot of sense. And considering that I actually did feel just enough sympathy for him that I did want to save him as much embarrassment as I could, after thinking about it briefly, I decided that there was no other choice and that I had to help him in any way that I could.
With a sigh, I approached him, hands up.
"All right," I said, meeting his eyes briefly before raising them to his belt. "Stay completely still, okay?"
He nodded before going utterly still, which was good, because the vines didn't seem to like the way he had started moving around since I'd arrived. They'd begun tightening, and that was the last thing we wanted. My touch seemed to calm them slightly, but only slightly.
My fingers trembled a bit, causing me to fumble a couple of times, as I undid his ridiculous belt. I put this down to simple practicalities---I had never undone another man's belt before, and the angle was extremely awkward. I finally got the damn thing unwound and let it drop to the ground, cringing as the vines twitched in response. Obviously I wasn't as nervous as Norris, who winced as the vines moved dangerously close to some of his rather important body parts---parts which, incidentally, I was trying very hard to avoid.
I did the shoes next, finding them just as difficult as the belt, and feeling a major sense of relief when they finally dropped to the ground. Another wince as the vines staked a greater claim, starting further towards Norris' stomach. I intended to beat them to it.
I undid his fly slowly, trying not to entice my opponent into any sort of action at all, and then went for the final act. My fingers slid beneath the waistband of his trousers as silently as they could, and with the gentlest tug, I started to move them upwards, fighting with the vines.
Of course, it's amazing how when you're in these situations, you don't think about simple things like physics. Neither of us had considered the consequences of our actions, and when it was too late...well, it was too late.
As soon as I had his pants past his hips, and the vines along with them, the vines' grip on him became loose enough that he started to slide, and then in one great tumble he spilled down out of the sky and onto the ground. I suppose it was what we had intended, but the unfortunate thing was that *I* was on the ground, and I took the brunt of his fall.
"Glenn! Are you all right?" he asked, poised above me, his body awkwardly laid on top of mine.
"Yes...fine," I said a bit breathlessly, bringing up a hand to touch my chest, as though checking for broken ribs. "I suppose I should have seen that coming."
"I'm sorry I didn't think of it," Norris said, again in that sheepish tone of voice, his bright blue eyes shimmering with mild amusement. His face was very close to mine. Why was he still on top of me again?
I dropped my hand back down and jumped a bit when it brushed against his bare thigh.
"Um...are you all right? Are you injured?" I asked, as a delicate way to start to bring up the subject (of why he was still on top of me).
"I think I'm okay," he said, and he must have taken the hint, because he started to roll off of me, but something about the way he rolled caused him to press against my thigh in a particular way. I realized something with a sudden burst of clarity that caused me to reach up and grab his shoulder, curling his shirt in my fist as I glared up at him firmly.
"Hey," I said, as firmly as I felt capable of in that moment, when security had dropped out from under me between one breath and the next. "You...that turned you on, didn't it? All of that just now. Why?"
I honestly can't say why I asked him that, so boldly. Perhaps I just wanted to know. All I know is that it was worth it, if only for the way his eyes widened like saucers.
"Wha...how do you know that?" he asked, and then a strange expression, something almost like pain, making his forehead furrow and his eyes go hazy for a moment, passed over his face as I briefly rubbed my leg between his. "Oh...that's how you know."
"Yes. An indicator that doesn't lie," I said breathlessly. "Is this a new thing?"
He glanced down at me from where he was holding himself above me, his hands on either side of my head, and then he sighed and closed his eyes.
"No, Glenn...it's not a new thing," he said with a slight smile. "If I'm honest...I've wanted you ever since I first saw you."
Well...that was certainly honest.
"Is that why you're always hanging off of me?" I asked, looking back on all those situations in a new light.
"I don't mean to," he said sheepishly. "I just like being near you. I'm sorry, Glenn."
"I don't mind that much," I said, and then I slapped myself inwardly. What was I talking about!? Remember the annoyance, the irritation...the way being near him always bothered me, how something about him always made me uneasy, like...like I had a mild stomach bug or something.
Almost like when you first feel attracted to someone.
Well, didn't I feel rather stupid.
"You know...this conversation is boring me," I said, mainly because I was tired of thinking and wanted to do something that would ensure that I wouldn't think for a while. And then I leaned up and kissed him, ignoring everything, like the fact that he was Porre and I was Acacia, and he was yellow and I was green, and I had never kissed anyone, much less another boy.
At first he stiffened, obviously surprised, but then he relaxed into it and started to kiss me back---or rather, to take control of the kiss, seemingly noticing my clumsiness and inexperience. The next thing I knew, his entire body was pressed against mine, his arms tightly around me, and he was kissing me so deeply, so thoroughly, that I felt almost like he was trying to get inside me through my mouth. Tongues stroking tongues, teeth nipping, lips caressing...I had never felt anything so hot in my entire life. And I could certainly say that Norris had never bothered me so much on any other occasion. One kiss and I was ready to explode, probably the most painful erection I had ever experienced straining against my pants as I rubbed myself against him, seeking some kind of relief---something *fast*.
He broke off the kiss and panted into my ear, and for my part, all I could do was let my head smack back against the ground and let out a quiet, raspy, "Oh...gods..."
And it was then, as I lay there, head against the dirt, staring up into the trees, that I spotted it. The lube, I mean...Norris' lost lube. At first all I saw was an elusive little sparkle of silver, but when I blinked to clear my vision it solidified into a little silver tube, stuck on one of the branches up in the trees.
I blinked again and ran a hand idly through Norris' hair, taking note of the fact that he was trying, with only minimal success, to get into my armor while he alternately nipped and sucked at my neck.
"Do you make it a habit to throw your lubricant into the trees?" I asked, and he glanced up, looking surprised by the question.
"Possibly...I make it a habit to get lost in the moment," he said after a pause, and then he followed my gaze as I looked up at the little tube shining in the sunlight.
"I found it," I said, unnecessarily.
"Thank the gods," Norris remarked, nuzzling his face against my leathers briefly before he got to his feet and reached up into the trees, russling the branches to try to get them to drop the elusive prize. "We're going to need it pretty soon..."
I had to take a deep breath and close my eyes when he said that, a rush of nervousness and a kind of finality of a decision already made moving through me. Then I opened my eyes and sat up, quickly stripping myself of my upper armor. When he knelt in front of me he took off his own jacket and shirt and then shimmied out of his underwear, and then I had to stop what I was doing and stare for a few moments. I wasn't sure what I was doing---admiring, acclimatizing, whatever---but I had to look at his body, tall and strong and *naked*. So very naked. I had seen other men naked before---I was in the army, after all---but never like this. Never so...aroused. He was larger than I had expected, too. There was that twinge of nervousness again, but I clamped that down.
He smiled at me encouragingly and leaned forward, lending his hands to the cause, helping to get rid of the rest of my clothing until I was just in my skivvies. Now it was my turn to blush boyishly as I took them off and sat cross-legged, not really trying to hide anything, but not trying to show off either, just awaiting his opinion.
I let out a short sound of shock when he suddenly grabbed me, his arms moving around me in a kind of embrace, and gently wrestled me to the ground. It seemed that he was the type to show his reactions through action, I thought, as he started to...well, to devour me, really. His mouth started at mine, giving me another searing kiss before he made his way down my body, licking and sucking his way along my chest and stomach and nuzzling his soft hair against my skin until he reached my arousal.
I nearly lost it when he first took the tip of my penis into his mouth, wrapping his lips around it like it was some kind of delicacy. I was clutching my hair, clutching his hair, trying to let out the frustration that was building up inside me somehow, my head thrashing back and forth as he sucked down the first few drops of precum.
"Please, Norris...hurry," I hissed. I really didn't care for this to be a long, drawn-out experience of exploration. That could come later. All I wanted right now was to come, and for some inexplicable reason, I wanted to do it with him. I didn't want to succumb to this nervousness; I wanted to succumb to the frustration, to the friction, and to this strange sensation of actually wanting to be in another person's arms.
He nodded, drawing back and licking his lips before he reached for the tube of lube he'd retrieved from the trees and poured a liberal amount onto his fingers. He bent over me, looking into my eyes as he pressed his fingers to my opening. I winced, then cried out, my hands gripping his shoulders hard, as his fingers pressed into me. He nuzzled against my temple and kissed me as he gently pumped his fingers in and out, spreading the lube around and stretching me, getting me ready. I was gasping by then, fighting for breath through the fire that was moving through my body. It took a while before that fire stopped being red-hot pain and started to feel like something else, and the need started to come back. By the time I started to move back against his fingers, craving the sensation of my body clenching around him, I knew it was time.
"Norris..." I growled, unwilling to wait any longer, and he nodded, getting to his knees. I watched, breathing hard, as he lubed himself up and then moved to kneel between my legs. His hands were methodical---he'd obviously done this before, which was kind of a relief, actually---but very gentle as he hoisted my legs over his shoulders, getting me into a better position, and then placed himself at my entrance.
I couldn't help the rough sound that was dragged out of my throat as he pushed into me, my muscles clenching hard around him with every thrust of his body against mine. The expression on his face was almost enough to drive me over the edge, much less the sensations shooting up my spine; he looked like he was focusing really hard, his eyes brilliant blue as though incensed and his face coated with sweat. My hands were in his hair before I knew it and I was pulling him against me for a desperate kiss as we kept grinding helplessly against each other, knowing that neither of us had very far to go.
I came first, letting go of his mouth and expressing my feelings with a strangled groan that became a cry as my orgasm spiraled into something that seemed like so much more. Within seconds he followed me, crying out something incomprehensible against my shoulder before he thrust a few final times and then fell still, his breath coming hard and fast where his chest pressed to mine.
"...Whoa," he said after a moment, and I couldn't help but agree. I closed my eyes and reached up to embrace him lightly, and after a moment he lowered himself a bit, closing his arms around me, and we just held each other in silence for a few minutes. Neither of us spoke up to ask what would happen next, or anything like that. That could come later too.
We did, however, eventually get up, and get back to the business of a normal day. Which meant first getting Norris' pants back from the mad vines, which proved quite difficult for two people who wanted nothing more than to roll over for a post-coitus nap. It was evening before we returned to the campsite, and even though we both noticed the strange looks people were throwing our way, we ignored them.
Norris approached Grobyc privately.
"Here you go, Grobyc," he said, handing him the tube of lube. "Use as much as you like."
Grobyc stared at the tube for a moment before handing it back to Norris.
"Thanks-but-no-thanks, Commander. The-Luccia-found-me-material-to-use-already...and-you-probably-will-need-th is-more-than-I."
The giggling from the people sitting in the circle around us was pretty obvious, and while Norris blushed lightly and scratched his head, glancing to me as though asking what to do, I merely sighed and shrugged.
No use hiding it, I suppose.
*****
THE END